Understanding Florida Bad Faith Claims Where there is or may be insurance coverage for a claim, perhaps one of the most important buttons to push is bad faith. Pre-mediation demands within policy limits trigger potential bad faith claims against an insurer. An insurer’s failure to settle a third-party claim against an insured contractor may amount...Read More

With multi-party construction defect claims, it becomes imperative for the claimant to fully understand each defendant’s scope of work and how it may have contributed to the damages sought. This becomes critically important where, for example, there has been different contractors involved with different subcontractors (perhaps even for the same trades), such as where an...Read More

Understanding Allocation of Construction Damages Between the Parties While it is imperative that the claimant fully understand its damages—not only what it is claiming, but what the law supports—equally if not more important is understanding where those damages may be apportioned between the parties. If the claimant presents a reasonable apportionment of damages in advance...Read More

Claims arising during the contractor’s ongoing operations may not be covered due to typical CGL exclusions, whereas there may be coverage for claims occurring after project completion where the contractor has completed operations coverage and the work was performed through a subcontractor. Additional insured (AI) status is another factor to consider. Contractors are routinely required...Read More

Help Understanding the Construction Project Insurance Program A Claimant should identify early on applicable policies of insurance and understand the policy terms, exclusions, and coverage limits. Where a project has an insurance program that is owner-controlled (OCIP) or contractor-controlled (CCIP), one policy will cover most of the parties working through or under the general contractor....Read More

What You need to Know About Occurrences under CGL Policies An “occurrence” under a standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy is “an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.” A construction defect claim may therefore involve more than one occurrence during a single policy period or during multiple policy...Read More

The Different Florida CGL Policy Triggers An insurer’s obligations under a commercial general liability policy (which is typically an “occurrence” based policy) is “triggered” depending on whether the damage occurred during the policy period. Different jurisdictions—including whether the case is in state or federal court—follow different trigger theories. Knowing which trigger applies is essential to...Read More

Coverage under CGL Policies No matter how strong a case is, if the defendant is not collectible, finding coverage under applicable insurance policies is critical to ensure that a plaintiff will be able to recover for its losses. The best case is worthless to a client if there is no reasonable expectation of recovery after...Read More

All About Florida Construction Mediation Preparation Not unlike preparing a closing argument at the beginning of a case to determine how a case will be developed through trial, working backwards from the mediation will maximize the chances of success. Starting with the statutory 558 process,[1] a Claimant (or recipient of a 558 notice) should ensure...Read More

By:  Gary L. Brown, Esq.  The seeds of success (or failure) of construction mediation are planted long before the mediation. Mediation of construction disputes presents many unique challenges. Construction cases, particularly ones in involving construction defects, are usually document intensive and involve multiple parties. Sufficient development of the facts and having the right parties (including...Read More